When we read the words food source technologies in the message sent to Food Naturally Line, we associated them to all the processes used to grow, raise, or synthesize the organic matter we use as food, particularly to all the biotechnology applied to clone cattle or to grow genetically modified corn. There is some concern about these issues after the FDA approved the use of cloned cattle on the food chain. We recalled some talk seen recently in forums.
“More research is needed” voices much of the general feeling, because in this instance there is no way back.
“Labels, labels, labels” has been the recurrent theme. Without labels, there is no informed choice; without choice, there is no freedom.
We realized it was not enough information and more research was needed about food source technologies, so off to do Internet research we went. We came back with not as much as we expected to find.
This was a somehow hot topic: people are entering “food source technologies” in their search box and not finding much information about it. I even found a blog post mentioning this lack of information, though it was made very much from the point of keyword research, not food sources. The mysterious people searching for food source technologies have not left other traces in the usual food groups and forums. A first glance to our food science database, did not bring back significant results. We could not tell if they are curious consumers, scientists searching for a little know topic to write about, or a company serching for competitors.
We found a couple of interesting sites writing about food sources. FoodtechSource.com has an e-e-zine and a forum; interesting and bookmarked it to go back later. FoodtechSource led to betterfoods.org, the Alliance for Better Foods, with the objective to inform the consumer about the latest biotech developments. The site defends only modern biotechnology can defeat world hunger, virtually the same argument used to defend GM food. FoodtechSource introduced it as the site to learn about the food we will eat tomorrow.
We found references about Rad Source Technologies, a company dedicated to produce non radioactive source irradiation equipment. We also found foodonline.com, at least this one was about food. There were references about Food Source Plus, a company supplying food to non profit organizations, and Source Food Technology, a company which had acquired the rights to some kind of new healthy suet with no trans-fats and no hydrogenation.
We went through Wikipedia to learn the first use of biotechnology is still to convert a food source into another form. We also read about Food Technology Corporation and their food texture testing.
We have not been able to add references from and expert source to and entirely answer the question; we raised more questions, instead. We found aspects of food technology we had not given much thought before -like the experiments to achieve the desired food texture- and we have a wish to learn more about the source of our food and the technologies applied until it gets to the table.
We don’t oppose all technology, only what’s unnecessary, and we would like to see more caution to adapt new technologies into every day life. We would like to see clear labels also, tedious as it might seem, people should have a choice.
We choose local, fresh, seasonal organic food whenever we can, avoiding certain kind of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics in cattle and poultry. Cloned cattle and GM food are not part of organic standards. Organic agriculture is less damaging to the environment. We think modern industrial agriculture and food storage procedures nproduces less flavorful food. We don’t preach.
A simple example of unnecesary technology is white flour: Vitamins have to be added because they are lost during the process. We prefer to use less refined flour that keeps its natural vitamins.
Would we eat cloned animals?
Given a choice, we would prefer cattle naturally breeded to an animal that had tired genes before it was born.
